De Belin stares down eye of needle again

Jack de Belin has taken a pain-killing needle to play in almost every game since round nine and he'll do it again to run out in St George Illawarra's do-or-die NRL semi-final against South Sydney.

The NSW State of Origin lock is confident he'll beat an aggravated syndesmosis injury to be fit to play on Saturday night, despite walking around in a moon boot for the second week in a row on Tuesday.

It comes after he battled through a hip injury for the Blues' Origin campaign, and had to be needled up and wear a guard whenever he took to the field through the middle part of the season following the injury in May.

But remarkably he is yet to miss a game of football this year, having played every week when available for the Dragons as well as all three Origin matches.

"I probably had one or two weeks there (without a needle), but pretty much since the Melbourne Storm game (in early May) I haven't not had them," de Belin told AAP.

"It's do or die for us now and I've just got to do whatever I can to make it okay for the game.

"If it was the start of the year you would give it a few weeks to get it right, but when it's do or die there's no second chances."

Before this season, the 27-year-old de Belin had never taken a needle through his NRL career which has been largely without drama.

Regarded as one of the toughest, the lock's only real stint on the sideline came in 2016 when he injured his rotator cuff and was expected to require surgery only to return four weeks later.

But it hasn't always been that way.

"When I went through the age of 16 to 18 I had a few serious injuries," he said.

"I subluxed my hip and chipped away at the bone and the next year I fractured my growth plate. I was thinking maybe I'm not cut out for rugby league.

"I pretty much didn't play footy for two years. I never doubted my body but just one of those things, I was unlucky and I was a late bloomer in a sense.

"Once I got through that stage my body has been very lucky, resilient and can bounce back from injuries very quickly."

Similar to last week against Brisbane, De Belin will emerge from the boot closer to Saturday, barely train but still be ready to breathe fire come kick off after limping off in the second half on Sunday.

"It will be the exact same this week," he said.

"I just got it caught and I just tweaked it and all the other muscles around it just seized up. It was more a scare."